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Research paper
Youth, sin and sex in Nigeria: Christianity and HIV/AIDS-related beliefs and behaviour among rural-urban migrants
In Nigeria, popular understandings of HIV/AIDS and individual risk assessment and behaviour unfold within an interpretative grid that draws on a religious moral framework. This paper reports results from a two‐year study of HIV/AIDS‐related beliefs and behaviour among adolescent and…
Discriminate biopower and everyday biopolitics: views on sickle cell testing in Dakar
Many physicians in Senegal and France, where most Senegalese sickle cell specialists are partially trained, assume that genetic testing that could imply selective abortion for people with sickle cell would run counter to the religious and cultural ethics of people…
Working paper
Researching social policy
This working paper reviews some of the main methodological approaches to emerge in the 1990s, reflecting on both their objectives and their limitations.
Briefing
Impacts on Health of Climate Extremes
This chapter summarizes what is known about the historical effects of climate extremes on human health. The following section describes studies of infectious diseases and climate extremes related to El Niño Southern Oscillation. The next considers the impacts of short-term…
Evidence review
Health, Shocks and Poverty Persistence
In this paper we review the evidence on the impact of large shocks, such as drought, on child and adult health, with particular emphasis on Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. Our focus is on the impact of shocks on long-term outcomes, and…
Evidence review
Towards a Comprehensive Approach of Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Needs of Women Displaced by War and Armed Conflict: A Practical Guide for Programme Officers
For some years, awareness about the need for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services for women in situations of war and armed conflict has been growing. As a result, humanitarian aid programmes are paying more and more attention to…
Psychosocial Intervention in Complex Emergencies: A Framework for Practice
This working paper sets about developing a common framework that summarises key knowledge in the field of psychosocial interventions in emergencies in order to provide agencies with some tools’ for making decisions about the type of interventions they can implement.…
Research paper
Between a camp and a hard place: rights, livelihood and experiences of the local settlement system for long-term refugees in Uganda
Drawing on qualitative research with refugees in and outside formal settlements, this article challenges characterisations of Uganda’s UNHCR-supported refugee settlement system as un-problematically successful. It shows that by denying refugees freedom of movement, the settlement system undermines their socio-economic and…
Research paper
Participating in Development? Refugee protection, politics and developmental approaches to refugee management in Uganda
This article examines an attempt by the government of Uganda and UNHCR to implement a developmental ‘Self Reliance Strategy’ in response to the needs of 188 ,000 long-term Sudanese refugees and their hosts in Uganda, and analyses some of the conceptual,…
Imagining HIV/AIDS: morality and perceptions of personal risk in Nigeria
The disparity between people’s knowledge about HIV/AIDS and the extent to which they take measures to protect themselves is one of the most vexing issues for public health workers and social science analysts. This paper aims to explain some of…
Imagining HIV/AIDS: Morality and perceptions of personal risk in Nigeria
The disparity between people’s knowledge about HIV/AIDS and the extent to which they take measures to protect themselves is one of the most vexing issues for public health workers and social science analysts. This paper aims to explain some of…
‘It’s raining stones’: stigma, violence and HIV vulnerability among men who have sex with men in Dakar, Senegal
In Dakar, Senegal, a study conducted by researchers from Cheikh Anta Diop University, the Senegal National Council Against AIDS, and the Horizons Program elicited quantitative and qualitative data about the needs, behaviours, knowledge, and attitudes of men who have sex…
Patronage, per diems and the “workshop mentality”: the practice of family planning programs in southeastern Nigeria
This article examines the ways in which family planning program personnel in Nigeria appropriate population program resources and models of social change to suit local priorities.
Infographic
Shielding People At High Risk Of Severe Illness Or Death
Protecting people at high risk by limiting their contact with others during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Research paper
Une perspective de paix pour le Soudan en 2002 ? fr
This article analyses the extent to which the international situation immediately following September 11, 2001 created the basis for an end to the civil war in Sudan. The author argues that the situation is handicapped by certain weaknesses: the internal…
Background report
Socio Cultural Perceptions of Communities in Kassena-Nankana District of Upper East Region towards Cerebro Spinal Meningitis
Perceptions of the causes of Cerebrospinal Meningitis, its treatment and prevention, as well as reasons for the blatant refusal by some sections of the communities to vaccinate against the disease in the wake of the big epidemic of the meningitis…
Malevolent ogbanje: recurrent reincarnation or sickle cell disease?.
The Igbo of Nigeria believe that everyone is ogbanje (reincarnates) but malevolent ogbanje differ from others in being revenge-driven, chronically ill and engaging in repeated cycles of birth, death and reincarnation. This study examined culturally defined symptoms of 100 children…
Background report
Health and Poverty in sub-Saharan Africa
The paper discusses strategies for meeting the needs of the poor in a pluralist health sector. It argues that the first step in defining such strategies must be a realistic assessment of the complex and unregulated market for health services…
Background report
Famine in the Twentieth Century
More than 70 million people died in famines during the 20th century. This paper compiles excess mortality estimates from over 30 major famines and assess the success of some parts of the world – China, the Soviet Union, and more…
Background report
Preventing and Coping with HIV/AIDS in Post-Conflict Situations: Gender-Based Lessons
This briefing note summarises the rationale behind a symposium held in South Africa, which objectives were: to provide a quick overview of gender-sensitive practices which have been effective in preventing and coping with HIV/AIDS in communities in the aftermath of…
Research paper
War and peace: What’s the difference?
This article analyses the political and contextual differences between war and peace.
Research paper
The Violence of Healing
This essay discusses violence and healing in response to war, drawing attention to the idea that violence and healing are often closely interconnected, and what may be judged to be violent acts can be expected to play a crucial role…
Preserving the pot and water: a traditional concept of reproductive health in a Yoruba community, Nigeria
Within the background of the outcome of the 1994 Cairo Conference, this paper describes a traditional conceptualization of prenatal care in a Nigerian community and draws their implication for effective delivery of reproductive health services in the area.
Background report
Leprosy among the Limba: illness and healing in the context of world view
The study analyzes the traditional beliefs and practices concerning leprosy of the Limba people of Sierra Leone. It shows that this dialectally diverse ethnic group has two views of leprosy and its cause, and two varieties of stigma associated with…
Research paper
A Disaster for Whom?: Local Interests and International Donors During Famine Among the Dinka of Sudan
The 1985–88 famine amongst the Dinka is described and shown to have been rooted in the long term exploitation of the south by northern Sudanese and international interests. This process of exploitation served, and continues to serve, important functions for…
Background report
Dying as Transformation to Ancestorhood: The Sherbro Coast of Sierra Leone
People who live in the Sherbro coastal area of Sierra Leone have a social organisation based upon descent from named ancestors and acestresses. Ancestors, the living, and those not yet born constitute a great chain of being. This continuum of…
Background report
Les Gens du Riz (The Rice People)
This is a chapter on Kissi Funerals in the region of Guekedou and Kissidougou. Whilst this is based on fieldwork conducted in 1945-6, many of the ritual practices and meanings were current and observed in Kissi villages in 1991-3. For…
Futures thinking
Disease scenarios Africa
This website details scenarios explored by researchers from the Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium and developed by the Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Evidence review
A Practitioner’s Guide for Facilitating People Centred Adaptation: Participatory Adaptation Handbook
This book has been compiled by a group of practitioners from South Africa, Ethiopia and Germany, and draws on our collective experiences in supporting local communities in adapting to increasing climatic variability and change. The authors have written this book…
Background report
International Peacekeeping: Special Issue: HIV/AIDS and Post-Conflict Societies in Africa
Intorductory article to edition of International Peacekeeping which explores HIV/AIDS in post-conflict societies in Africa. It assesses the key aspects of these societies that contribute towards the spread and impact of the epidemic, such as poorly functioning national health systems,…
Background report
A Rapid Qualitative Assessment of Oral Cholera Vaccine Anticipated Acceptability in a Context of Resistance Towards Cholera Intervention in Nampula, Mozambique
While planning an immunization campaign in settings where public health interventions are subject to politically motivated resistance, designing context-based social mobilization strategies is critical to ensure community acceptability. in preparation for an Oral Cholera Vaccine campaign implemented in Nampula, Mozambique,…
Evidence review
At Home with Mastomys and Rattus: Human-Rodent Interactions and Potential for Primary Transmission of Lassa Virus in Domestic Spaces
The multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis) is the reservoir for Lassa virus (LASV). Zoonotic transmission occurs when humans are directly or indirectly exposed to fluids of the multimammate mouse, such as urine, saliva, and blood. Housing characteristics and domestic organization affect…
Evidence review
Camel Milk, Amoxicillin, and a Prayer: Medical Pluralism and Medical Humanitarian Aid in the Somali Region of Ethiopia
This paper details how exposure to new clinics, diagnostic technologies, and pharmaceuticals during humanitarian relief operations in the Somali Region of Ethiopia shaped local pluralistic health systems and altered the ways in which residents subsequently conceived of and treated illness…
Briefing
Communicating Risk in Public Health Emergencies
During public health emergencies, people need to know what health risks they face, and what actions they can take to protect their health and lives. Accurate information provided early, often, and in languages and channels that people understand, trust and use,…
Background report
Cultural Transmission of Traditional Ecological Knowledge among Batwa Pygmies and Ntomba Bantou in Lake Tumba Landscape, Democratic Republic of Congo
This paper is a case study which aims to examine how today’s techniques related to different livelihood activities, but also in the social field, are acquired and transmitted among Batwa (pygmies) and Ntomba (bantou) communities living in the two villages (Moheli…
Background report
Ebola and Lessons for Development
As the Ebola crisis continues to unfold across West Africa and the international community belatedly responds, broader questions arise beyond the immediate challenges on the ground. These fundamentally challenge our understanding of ‘development’ as framed and practised in past decades.…
